Chapter VII

State of the Packet Service--Ship Letters--Special Boats built for the
Harwich Station--M. Pajot, Director of the French Posts--Establishment
of West India Packets--Edmund Dummer, Surveyor of the Navy--Regulations
for the Management of the Packet Stations--Conditions of Employment--
Smart and Bounty Money--Passes required for Passengers--and for Goods--
Regulations habitually infringed--Smuggling--Packets forbidden to give
Chase--Practice on Capture of a Prize--Packet Stations at Falmouth and
at Harwich conducted on different Principles--Packets employed to carry
Recruits--Letters not to be carried in Foreign Bottoms--Court-Post--
Restoration of Packet Service with Flanders--John Macky, Packet Agent at
Dover--The Postmasters-General act as Purveyors of News to the Court--
Their Interview with Godolphin--Posts set up for the Army in Flanders--
Packet Establishment placed on a Peace Footing--Dummer's Bankruptcy and
Death 72

CHAPTER VIII

American Posts--Thomas Neale--Andrew Hamilton--Ocean Penny Postage--Posts
transferred to the Crown--Become self-supporting 110

CHAPTER IX

Condition of the Post Office in Scotland at the time of the Union--
Inaction of the English Post Office--Charles Povey--William Lowndes--
Diversion of Postage from the Crown to the Public--Postage Rates
increased--Electoral Disabilities--Restrictions on the common Carrier--
Modification of the Penny Post--Post-horses--Franking--Illicit Traffic in
Letters--Treasury Inconsistency--Post Office Farmers converted into
Managers--Treaty with France--Matthew Prior--Single and Double Letters--
Change of Postmasters-General--Disagreements with Merchants--Twopenny
Post--Comparative Statement of Revenue--Gross and Net Revenue confounded
117

CHAPTER X

Allen's Contract--General Review--The Secretary's Dismissal--Earl of
Abercorn's Complaint--Sketch of Allen's Plan--His Qualifications for
carrying it into effect--His local Knowledge--His Difficulties with
Postmasters--Post-boys--Illegal Conveyance of Letters--Contrast between
Allen's Mode of Procedure and that of the Post Office--Posts increased
in Frequency--Opening of Letters--Falmouth Packets--Late Delivery of
Foreign Letters--Erection of Milestones--Letters containing Patterns
and Writs--Apertures to Letter-boxes--Expresses--Highwaymen--Bank Notes--
Decadence--Allen's 146

CHAPTER XI

Penny Post--Franking--Newspapers--Clerks of the Roads--Numbering of
Houses--Scotch and Irish Posts--Receiving Offices--Gratuities on
Delivery--Appeal to the Courts--Appointment of Letter-carriers--Attempt
to curtail the Limits of the Penny Post frustrated--Benjamin Franklin--
Post Office Monopoly in matter of Horses abolished--Disfranchising Act--
Causes of Disquietude 187